This is why I am in the wine game: the opportunity to mix business and pleasure and to develop great friendships. When I visit Tenuta Di Riseccoli, in the heart of Chianti Classico territory just 45 minutes south of Florence, I feel like I am combining all three.

The Romanelli family, who’ve owned the property since the early 1900s, have made me feel incredibly welcome since my first visit in 2002. Riseccoli was a major catalyst in the creation of Planet Wine.

A few exploratory emails to me from Benoit Faure Romanelli in 2002 set the ball rolling; I had planned a trip to Corfu with a group of card-playing Bostonian friends that year and it was a cinch to add a week in Tuscany.

It helps that I usually stay in one of the two beautifully restored case coloniche, or traditional farmhouses, that afford spectacular views across the Tuscan countryside to the Apennine mountains in the distance. The two restored stone villas each boast a large swimming pool and expansive gardens that flow into the vineyards and are rented out as ‘agriturismo’ villas. They are a short walk away from the winery and the cellar door. (Please contact me for more information. I can connect you directly with the owners.)

Florentine sculptor Romano Romanelli acquired the 17th century country house and surrounding grounds in 1902. The third generation of artists and sculptors, Professor Romanelli was a member of the prestigious Florence Academy of Arts and his works can still be seen in public spaces across Italy, and in museums around the world.

Outside of art, Romanelli had always held a keen interest in agriculture and winemaking.

From making wine for friends to fame for quality wine-making

The property was a working farm when he took it over, with olive groves and orchards as well as vineyards. Initially, wine was made solely for the private consumption of the family and their closest friends in Florence, but Romanelli soon took to modernising the estate, adopting the latest viticultural and winemaking methods.

Riseccoli rapidly became known for its quality wines, first in Tuscany (visitors to the present winery can see the awards the Estate received dating as far back as 1927) and then beyond Italy's borders.

For much of the latter part of the 20th century and the start of the 21st, it was Romanelli’s daughter Illaria and her now late French husband Arnaud Faure, who kept up the family tradition at Tenuta di Riseccoli. Now the baton has been passed to their four sons – Nicolas, Benoit, Laurent and Thomas Faure-Romanelli.

Their ongoing dedication to maintaining the family legacy and producing outstanding wines has positioned the small-scale estate as one of the most acclaimed in the Chianti Classico sub-region of Tuscany. The family and its team have more recently carried out several major transformations to the estate – restructuring the vineyards, improving the clonal selection and diversifying into other grape varieties, as well as upgrading winemaking techniques and cellar equipment.

But they maintain an artisanal approach to winemaking and take advantage of the varying climate conditions of the region to let each vintage reveal its own unique expression of Riseccoli’s terroir. Their Chianti Classico is now certified as organic.

Petit Verdot grapes and extra-virgin olive oil

One of their most adventurous initiatives has been the planting of petit verdot grapes for a single varietal wine. After they ran into some issues for naming the wine Petit Verdot, it is now called Piccolo Verdot and is receiving rave reviews. About 25ha are in production, mostly planted to sangiovese with smaller crops of malvasia, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petit verdot spread across the original family land.

The original vineyards are located 500 to 700m above sea level, the cooler air allowing for a longer ripening season. In the latter part of the year, when harvest takes place, fog is a common occurrence. This is when wild boar (source of the famous local cingiale sausage) and deer roam the vineyards in search of sugary ripe grapes. The remaining 115ha consists mostly of olive groves and forests.

Tenuta Riseccoli is one of just a handful in the Chianti Classico region that also produce the highest quality extra-virgin olive oil, harvested solely from their own groves and farmed with traditional organic methods.

But back to the wine – while sangiovese provides the backbone to Riseccoli’s Chianti Classico and also to their range of Tuscan red Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) wines, the family’s connections to Bordeaux (through Arnaud) influenced them to use French grape varieties with easy confidence, resulting in appealing blends.

Yields for the sangiovese grapes are kept at the lowest level (40 to 45hl/ha) in the Chianti Classico area, enhancing the complexity of fruit. The well-drained soils, consisting essentially of galestro and clay sediment, add distinctive terroir characteristics.

Five red and a dessert wine

Riseccoli’s full range presently comprises five reds, from the entry level fruit-forward Rinascita through to their cult Super Tuscan Saeculum, and a dessert wine, Vin Santo.

Three members of another local family, the Barbieris, also play an integral part in the business. Highly respected agronomist Valerio has planted the majority of the Riseccoli vineyards. His daughter, Elisabetta, is the consulting winemaker, and niece Serena is responsible for administration and shipping, as well as the tasting room.

Cellarmaster Simone Franconi is from the nearby hilltop village of Montefioralle, where he produces miniscule parcels of his own excellent wines. The team at Tenuta di Riseccoli is an extension of my own family. I travel there regularly, my wider family has visited to celebrate significant birthdays and friends of mine have also been introduced to the heart and splendour of true Chianti Classico.

Check out their wines in New Zealand and/or (hopefully in 2021) head over to the Tuscan countryside and sample their wines and olive oil in situ.

]]>false2020-06-01T03:26:31Z2020-06-01T03:26:31Zhttps://www.planetwine.co.nz/planet-wine-blog/to-the-ends-of-the-earth/I have been working in the wine industry for over 30 years, and have been somewhat cynical about natural wines, the many still-fermenting ‘Pet-Nats’ with their fancy labels, high prices and, at times, unimpressive liquids
concocted by bearded hipsters.

Now let me step
back 8000 years: this is when
Georgia (Eastern Europe, not US Coca-Cola country) started producing wine naturally.
Georgian wines have always (and still are to a large extent) been made using
natural yeasts occurring in the vineyard, and without chemical sprays or the
addition of SO2.

In 2017, an
invitation from a school friend to join him on his hunt for his father’s
ancestral home in the Ukraine had me poring over maps of the Black Sea and
beyond. Immediately, my tendrils were out, feeling for wine connections in
Georgia and Armenia.

After a week in the Ukraine, including a
day-trip exploring Chernobyl, I landed in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
Despite a midnight arrival, the suited driver of the Ararat Cognac Factory was
there to greet me, guiding me to the large black Mercedes and my rather tacky
AirBnB accommodation with raised eyebrows.The following day, we drove to the
‘factory’.

Fifty year old Ararat Cognac in hand

While the
facilities, with views of Mount Ararat in Turkey, were certainly outdated
(read: dilapidated), their very valuable assets are the multitude of barrels of
liquid they have in stock. Armenian ‘cognac’ is highly regarded around the
world and especially in Russia.

The tasting
was held in a large wood-paneled room with high ceilings and naïve paintings of
the owner leading worker brothers to shore. ‘Rustic’ would be a good descriptor
for the surroundings, as well as the ageing chocolates that were proffered.

As the sun
set with Mt.Ararat in the distance, a gifted bottle of 50-year-old Ararat cognac in my hand, I resolved to import some of their products. Good products,
good people.

That
evening, back in the capital Yerevan, I went in search of a wine bar called
Wine Republic. It turned out to be a Thai restaurant with an excellent wine
list and cellar. The young staff were friendly and led me through an
interesting array of Armenian wines made of indigenous and ‘Georgian’ grape
varieties such as areni noir, saperavi, and kisi.

Yerevan to Tbilisi by marshrutka to meet the qvevri

And now to Georgia, the country where wine has been made for 8,000 years! I travelled
from Yerevan to Tbilisi in a marshrutka, a small bus certified to carry up to
16 passengers.

After being
stopped for a speeding offence, we arrived in the hilly capital of Tbilisi, which is much
more focused on tourism than Yerevan. Wine is the engine of this country, and
every fourth store is a wine shop, wine bar or restaurant. After a night of
walking and enjoying a large steak and some local red wine, I was picked up in
the morning by my translator Salomé, and a driver. This was the beginning of a
4.5 day, 22-winery whirlwind tour of Georgian wineries that had been arranged by the Georgian wine marketing agency.

Day one ended with visits to the residential wineries
of three brothers, each trying to outdo the other. I remember much food, many toasts and some
singing, but no dancing.Very
friendly and hospitable people, the Georgians!The
following days were a blur of wineries, qvevri and vineyards. Wineries ranged
from small to foreign-owned and large corporates. Most of the wineries work
with autochthonous varieties like mtsvane, rkatsiteli, saperavi, kisi, chinuri
and 500+ others.

More qvevri and some chacha

Of the 22
wineries I visited, having tasted around 150 wines, I will eventually work with
4 to 6. As in any other winemaking country, vintners are usually driven by passion.The winemakers I like to work with are those who love what they do and who will
give up much to achieve their dream.

A prime example
of this kind of winemaker is John Wurdeman of Pheasant’s Tears winery, named
after a Georgian fable in which only the best wines will make a Pheasant cry. John grew
up with hippy parents in California, and then decided to study painting in
Moscow. He visited Georgia in 1996, met and married his wife, Gela, from a
winemaking family, and stayed.

His wines
are the most well known from Georgia, possibly because of his western roots and
connections. They are all
made in qvevri. The skin contact varies with each grape variety.

The skin and
stalks floating on top of the wine are called chacha, also the name for
Georgian grappa. John was kind enough to devote an entire afternoon and evening
to our small team and I am pleased to say that I have a wide range of his wines
available via the Planet Wine website.

While
proponents of the natural wine movement may jump at the chance to taste
Georgian wines, I am interested in a broader assessment from wine connoisseurs
who have honed their senses on more traditionally-made wines. My experience in
Georgia proved to me that many vintners producing natural wines in the New
World still have a way to go, although improvements in recent years have been
rapid.

]]>false2020-04-14T05:49:02Z2020-04-14T05:49:02Zhttps://www.planetwine.co.nz/planet-wine-blog/back-to-nature-with-the-bandits-at-testalonga/Natural wine? In 2016, I was reading more and more about this emerging trend
in international media and felt a need to find out more.

But first, it's necessary to explain what natural wine is.

The basics are that the grapes need to be sourced
from organically-managed vineyards, hand-picked, and fermented using the grapes’
own naturally-occurring yeasts. There’s no fining or filtration, and the only
addition may be a little sulphur during bottling. Natural as can be.

Georgia (ex-USSR) has been making wine for 8,000 years and, as you can
imagine, those wines were made naturally for many centuries before more modern
winemaking techniques and chemicals were introduced. Some regions like the Jura in France have also
been making wine in this fashion for a long time.

In the past 10 years, however, more and more winemakers have
re-discovered this natural way of making wine and, with consumers’ growing
interest in more environmentally-friendly products, they have found a ready
market.

As part of my journey of discovery, I contacted John Wurdeman at Georgian
winery Pheasant’s Tears and Dave Geyer in the Barossa to establish a ‘natural’
portfolio within Planet Wine. I also reached out to the leading maker of
natural wine in South Africa, Craig Hawkins, and arranged to visit him and
his wife Carla, also a winemaker, on my annual trip to South Africa in January
2017.

Soft sand and Beorbuls

The directions to Bandit’s Kloof, two-hour’s drive north of Cape Town,
were vague and I nearly got the rental stuck in some soft sand, but I made
it.Craig and Carla had very recently
purchased the property and were setting about establishing and renovating the
necessary infrastructure.Their number
one priority had been the large temperature-controlled ‘winery’ and
warehouse.

Craig, accompanied by his Boerbul dogs, showed me around
the property, travelling past a dam with a floating plastic crocodile head, and
pointing out where future vines would be planted.Their land is nestled on the slopes of a
south-facing hill and the soils are very rocky – a great source of building
materials for walls and buildings.

We then returned to the concrete structure to inspect his tanks, barrels
and wines.What a journey I was in for:
audacious labels, amusing copy and clever designs, out-there grape varieties
and Craig’s quiet confidence and tenacity. We tasted wines from barrels and bottles as well as some herb-infused
products still at an experimental stage (see photo at the end). Craig also touched on some of his history, starting with a childhood
growing up in Natal Province and eventually finding his way into winemaking via
various stations around the world.

In 2008, after many years making wine all over the globe, Craig and
Carla started Testalonga in Swartland. Testalonga was the nickname of an old
Italian guy Craig knew who made his white wines like red wines, as well as the
name of a bandit from Sicily.

Defiant, elemental wine somewhat freakish

Testalonga’s first wine was a skin contact chenin blanc called El Bandito – a
defiant, elemental wine that, at the time, was regarded as something freakish, an
aberration. Craig has since changed the agenda in South Africa. These days,
while skin contact and orange wines are not ten-a-penny, no one blinks when they
see one.

From there, they introduced new vineyards of mostly old bush vines of grenache,
muscat, carignan, harslevelü and syrah. They have also planted South Africa's
first cuttings of maccabeu and vermentino.

Testalonga’s entry-level range is called Baby Bandito and encompasses a
chenin blanc, carignan and cinsault. Thewines tend to be low in alcohol, 11.5 to 12.5%, delicate and fine with good
acidity and drinkability – not overpowering.The labels depict a photograph of a Vietnamese child, taken by Craig’s
brother.

Neil Young inspires more killer labels

The El Bandito range also includes Cortez (name borrowed from the Neil
Young song, Cortez the Killer): a white wine made with chenin blanc grapes,
rich in apricot, melon and the firm backbone of ripe citrus.The label for this wine changes every
year.Then there are the Monkey Gone to
Heaven Mourvedre, Hallelujah Chicken Run Viognier, Sweet Cheeks Muscat (lable above) Queen
of Spades Tinta Amarela, Mangaliza Harslevelü (a Hungarian variety) and The
Dark Side Syrah.

He also produces two Pet-Nat (natural sparkling) wines that I have also
imported: I am the Ninja, and I wish I was a Ninja.Each wine and label has a multi-layered story
to it.

Craig is a thinker. He is El Bandito who is allowed to roam and
experiment and Carla is Baby (or Boring when she does admin) Bandito and holds
it all together.Their property,
Bandit’s Kloof, is where the Bandits have created a nest for themselves and
their recently-arrived daughter.

Ground-breaking wine in high
demand worldwide

Testalonga’s wines have a great international reputation and are in high
demand worldwide. After initially only
being able to source a small allocation for New Zealand, through repeated
visits to the Bandits, I have just recently landed a larger volume of the wines
and, proudly, a wine made especially for me, the Cahn & Finlay Pinotage,
which boasts a photograph I took last year when in Cape Town.

The final words have
to be about Craig; he says these
wines are South African wines with a sense of place, and explains that what has been tasted
before from South Africa is industrialised wine, made to meet profit
requirements, resulting in a demand for a specific style of formulaic wine.

“Wines from high-yielding vines that have had too much time in the sun, giving
high levels of sugar and resulting alcohol levels. A sense of place cannot be
dressed up in industrialised yeast, hard processing and too much added of anything,” this ground-breaking winemaker says.

Craig says how important it is that everything is done
properly, from the work in the vineyard to the winemaking. Nothing should be
added and nothing taken away. Although, for Craig, it’s not natural for the
sake of natural that is important.The key is to produce the highest possible
quality, and that means hygienic conditions will trump anything.

The name El Bandito
reflects the rebellious attitude Craig has towards the established ideas of
South African wine. He pours Sweet Cheeks, from the grape Muscat
d’Alexandria with 10 days skin contact. The name was inspired by the kids
munching grapes during harvest season. It’s an impeccable orange wine with
intense freshness, and I think my cheeks are bulging (sweet cheeks) from this
zesty juice.

Craig’s last comment:
“If I could, everything would be aged under the surface of the sea.”

]]>false2020-04-14T04:43:10Z2020-04-14T04:43:10Zhttps://www.planetwine.co.nz/planet-wine-blog/mayer-brings-back-the-funk/Bombastic, maverick and mad scientist are just a few of the terms people use to describe cult
winemaker Timo Mayer. One thing we can all agree on: he’s behind some of the
most exciting wines coming out of Australia today.

Mayer was born and raised in the winemaking region of Württemberg, Germany,
where his family have been making wine for more than 400 years. He moved to
Australia in the late ‘80s and studied winemaking at Wagga Wagga, before
working at De Bortoliand Gembrook Hill and
in the Yarra Valley, Victoria.

Since 1999, Mayer has been
farming a small, punishingly steep vineyard in the Yarra Valley, which he aptly named Bloody Hill. Here, he says he’s on a mission to 'bring back the funk',
producing unfined, unfiltered wines of remarkable elegance and
complexity.

Penchant for whole bunch fermentation

Mayer’s trademark is his penchant
for whole bunch fermentation - an old-school approach which he’s helped to revive
among some modern Australian winemakers.

The technique lends a stalky, savoury
quality to his pinot noirs, for which he is particularly well-known. Other
Mayer varieties, including merlot, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and nebbiolo
are equally sublime.

A selection of Mayer’s rare
and elegant wines is now available through Planet Wine, and some of New Zealand’s top winemakers have
already availed themselves of the opportunity to purchase them.

]]>false2019-08-28T01:49:31Z2019-08-28T01:49:31Zhttps://www.planetwine.co.nz/planet-wine-blog/reyneke-wines-stellenboch/We have been importing Johann Reyneke’s organic and bio-dynamic wines into New Zealand for a number of years. We have always loved his philosophy and approach to winemaking and looking after his community – whether that be family, his workers or the animals on the farm.

In Johann’s own words:

“Biodynamic Winemaking. The future lies right at the beginning.

here’s a lot to be said for the way wine used to be made. Back when the Reyneke farm began as ‘Uitzicht’ in 1863, there were no chemicals or ‘technology’, just the land, nature and people. Uitzicht (Dutch for ‘view’) is perched overlooking Stellenbosch and False Bay. It has north-, east- and south-facing slopes. The best land is planted to vines and the remainder complements the vineyards with pasture, compost-making and pockets of wilderness. It is the kind of balance that is far more important than ensuring the spreadsheets all balance out. And it’s the true, time-honoured tradition of winemaking.

A biodynamic farm is often seen as an ‘individuality’. It needs to be self-sustainable and self-supporting. This is important for two reasons; firstly, to reduce the carbon footprint, and secondly, to be less affected by market forces.

If the farm can produce its own fertilizer and compost, this will mean a lower dependence on trucked-in fertilizer arriving under clouds of diesel exhaust fumes. If the farm is self sufficient, its own cow manure ‘costs’ the same every day, irrespective of the price of oil.

This understanding is simply the tip of an harmonious iceberg. Our philosophy of “waste not, want not” runs deep into sustainability. Whatever we use, we carefully think about re-using, re-purposing or recycling. Even a seemingly small decision like whether to put paper in the office recycle bin. We prefer rather to shred it and feed it to our earthworm farm, which then supplies the vineyards with its vermi-compost.

This holistic approach to agriculture requires that we step away from monoculture. Although the vineyards are the mainstay of the Reyneke farm, they exist in a synergy with our vegetable gardens, the animal husbandry being practiced here, and, of course, our people.

Biodynamic agriculture comes from a time when there was a spiritual understanding of life in general, and farming in particular. We try to never lose sight of this, putting people first, naming our cows instead of numbering them, and even studying the weeds (rather than just yanking them out) to learn why they’re there. We've made great progress and we are nearly back where we started.

We believe there's a lot to be said for the way winemaking used to be. There were no chemicals, no "technological advancements" that made the process a process, and natural balance was more important than balance sheets. Some people dismiss it as old-fashioned nostalgia, but we like to think of it as ancient wisdom. And we embrace it as much as we can. Not just because it's better for the earth, but because it makes for better wine.”

Sadly, all good things come to an end – eventually. Johann’s winery is distributed in South Africa and overseas by a larger commercially-focused wine company, Vinimark. They have seen fit to wrest the brand from us in New Zealand, without notice. We are sad to wave Johann goodbye but will always hold him and his philosophies in high regard; oh, and his wines.

]]>false2018-05-08T09:53:18Z2018-05-08T09:53:18Zhttps://www.planetwine.co.nz/planet-wine-blog/to-the-ends-of-the-earth-naturally/The ‘natural’ wine movement and its emergence and fashionability have piqued my interest for some time now. The fact that this term, within the wine industry, has no specific definition or certification is a topic for a long discussion over many glasses of wine.

I have been working in the wine industry for over 30 years and am somewhat cynical about the many still-fermenting ‘Pet-Nat’ wines, fancy labels, high prices and often unimpressive liquids concocted by bearded hipster-types wearing too-tight trousers with too-tight jackets. At the recent Rootstock Natural Wine Festival in Sydney, one of the most acclaimed (and bio-dynamic) wineries from Western Australia was asked what gave them the right to be at that festival. How much more natural can a winery be than bio-dynamic?

But, let us step back 8000 years. This is when Georgia (Eastern Europe, not Coca Cola) started producing wine, naturally. An invitation from a school friend to join him in his hunt for his father’s ancestral home in the Ukraine had me poring over on-line maps of the Black Sea and beyond. Any excuse and my tendrils are out, feeling for wine connections in Georgia and Armenia. Sadly Crimea, known for producing ‘Champagne’, was out of bounds due to the Russian annexation/invasion.

Jump to August 2017 and after, a week in the Ukraine, including a day-trip exploring Chernobyl, I landed in Yerevan, capital of Armenia. In site of a midnight arrival, the suited driver of the Ararat Cognac Factory guided me to the large black Mercedes and my AirBnB accommodation. After a short meeting with the family on the following day, we drove to the ‘Factory’. Number 2 son driving, father (no English) in the passenger seat and number 1 son, Grigor, next to me in the rear, pushing for sales already, in excellent English. The father had been the manager of the factory when the USSR fell in 1991 and took over ownership at that time. No questions asked (by me).

While the facilities, with views of Mount Ararat in Turkey, were certainly out-dated, their very valuable assets are the multitude of barrels of liquid they have in stock. Armenian ‘Cognac’ is highly regarded around the world and especially in Russia. The tasting was held in a large wood-paneled room with high ceilings and naïve paintings of the owner leading worker brothers to shore. ‘Rustic’ would be a good descriptor, as were the chocolates that were offered. The various spirits and wines (including pomegranate and blackcurrant) were interesting. “How would these be received in the New Zealand market?” is the question I keep asking myself when searching for extensions to the Planet Wine portfolio. As the sun set, with Mt. Ararat in the distance, with the gift of a bottle of 50-year old Ararat Cognac in my hand, I resolved to import some of their products – good products, good people, sincere.

That evening, back in the capital Yerevan, I went in search of a wine bar called Wine Republic. An Armenian winery, Zorah, had suggested that I taste their wines there. Yerevan was founded in the 8th century BC and became the capital of Armenia in 1918. Structures are mainly European 18th and 19th century in style but the 21st century is making its mark with modern buildings, shops, bars and restaurant that would not be out of place in New York or Florence. Wine Republic turned out to be a Thai restaurant with an excellent wine bar and cellar. Young staff were friendly and competent in English and led me through an interesting array of Armenian wines using indigenous and ‘Georgian’ grape varieties: areni noir, saperavi, kisi etc

Armenia’s wine industry has been over-shadowed by its northern neighbour, Georgia. While similar varieties and processes are used, the Georgian industry has taken the opportunity to promote itself extensively and consistently over the past 5+ years, secure in the proof that Georgia has been producing wine continuously for the past 8000 years, longer than any other country.

I undertook my trip from Yerevan to Tbilisi in a marshrutka, a small bus certified to carry 12-16 passengers. Traffic in this part of the world drives on the RHS of the road. Driving becomes ‘interesting’ when both left and right-hand-drive vehicles are allowed, causing drivers of RHD vehicles to have to cross into on-coming traffic in order to assess overtaking opportunities. Our bus had free WiFi (as far as the Georgian border) and we were stopped for a speeding offence.

Tbilisi is a hilly capital much more focused on tourism than Yerevan. Every 4th store is a wine store or a wine bar or restaurant. WINE is the engine of this country. After a night of walking about and ingesting a large steak with some local red wine, I tumbled into my AirBnB bed. In the morning, I was picked up by Salomé, my translator, who had only recently started working for the Georgian wine marketing body, and the driver. This was the beginning of a 4.5 day, 22-winery whirlwind tour of Georgian wineries. On day one we visited two Monasteries that produce wine. I was introduced to the Qvevri, the traditional Georgian fermentation and storage vessel. Essentially, these are clay amphora, lined with bee’s wax, which are buried in the ground. In residential areas, where Europeans would have cellars, Georgians may have 4-6 Qvevri buried in the ground in the basement of their homes. This saves space and also aids in controlling the temperature of the wine. Day one ended with visits to the residential wineries of three brothers, each trying to outdo the other. I remember much food, many toasts and some singing, but no dancing. Very friendly and hospitable people, the Georgians!

The rest of the days in Georgia were a blur of wineries, Qvevri and vineyards. Wineries ranged from small to foreign-owned and to large corporates. Most of the wineries work with autochthonous varieties like mtsvane, rkatsiteli, saperavi, kisi, chinuri and 500+ others. Most that we visited ferment and age their wines in Qvevri but we also encountered a few larger wineries that have invested in modern winemaking equipment like stainless steel tanks and oak barrels.

Like in any other winemaking country, vintners are usually driven by a dream, by a passion. The winemakers I like to work with are these, the ones who love what they do and who will give up much to achieve that dream. An example of this is the winery Pheasant’s Tears, named after a Georgian fable in which only the best wines will make a Pheasant cry. I had been in email contact with John Wurdeman. His story is worth telling: grew up with hippy parents in California, studied art/painting, decided to study painting further in Moscow, visited Georgia in 1996, met his wife Gela, from a winemaking family, married and stayed. His wines are the most well known from and in Georgia, possibly because of his western roots and connections. Wines are all made in Qvevri. The skin contact varies with each grape variety. The skin and stalks floating on top of the wine are called ChaCha, also the name for Georgian grappa.

John was kind enough to devote an entire afternoon and evening to our small team and I am pleased to say that 5 of his wines will be arriving in New Zealand on 19 February and will be available via the Planet Wine website.

Of the 22 wineries I visited, having tasted around 150 wines, I will eventually work with 4-6. Some focus only one variety while others produce more affordable wines with Georgian varieties that will be required to introduce them to a wider novice audience in New Zealand.

Full circle. Georgian wines are, to a large extent, made in a natural, minimal-interventionist manner. That means using natural yeasts (occurring in the vineyard), not using chemical sprays in the vineyard and not adding SO2 to the wines. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. While proponents of the ‘natural wine’ movement may blindly jump at the chance of tasting Georgian wines and expounding its virtues, I am interested in a broader assessment from wine connoisseurs who have honed their senses on more traditionally-made wines. My experience in Georgia proved to me that many vintners producing ‘natural’ wines in the New World still have a lot to learn before their ‘natural’ wines meet my standards.

On the other hand, I have had occasion to meet ‘natural’ winemakers around the world whose wines I really enjoyed. I am already representing the Testalonga wines from South Africa and am currently in discussions with Dave Geyer in the Barossa Valley and a Spanish ‘natural’ wine producer, Bodegas Cueva.

Martin

]]>false2016-12-18T01:09:25Z2016-12-18T01:09:25Zhttps://www.planetwine.co.nz/planet-wine-blog/the-pisco-revolution-hits-new-zealand/There’s a quiet revolution going on in bars across New Zealand – and its name is Pisco! Yes, the distinctive brandy-like spirit that both Chile and Peru claim as their own is capturing the imaginations and palates of mixologists and patrons countrywide, keen to explore new tastes and push the envelope with cocktails.

Planet Wine first started importing Pisco back in 2010. There wasn’t much take-up then but I knew there was more potential and, in 2014, I headed to the Elqui Valley in the Northern foothills of the Chilean Andes in search of premium products that would really showcase not just the quality of Pisco, but also the fascinating stories and history behind it.

And history it has in good measure. More than a bit of controversy too, with the true birthplace of Pisco long having been a point of contention between Chile and Peru.

One thing everyone agrees on is that it was the Spanish conquistadors who first brought grape vines and wine making to that part of the world, and that Pisco developed as a method of using up surplus grapes.

But it’s when it comes to the origins of the term Pisco itself that the debate hots up. Peruvians point to the fact that the Southern port by the name has existed on maps since as early as the 1570s, while Chile only created the Northern town of Pisco in 1937 at the behest of its president.

Chileans counter this argument with the fact that the Viceroyalty of Peru, as defined by a 1542 map, encompassed both what is now modern Chile and Peru, and a lot more territory besides, which clouds the matter of where the name and the spirit might have really originated.

Peru also claims the etymology of the word, from the Quechua word, pisqu, which means ‘little bird’, several varieties of which populate the ICA Valley of Southern Peru.

The beeswax-lined clay pitchers that were long used to store and transport Pisco are also called piscos or pisquillos.

So intense has the battle for ownership been that at various times both countries have banned the import of Pisco from the neighbouring country and, even today, Chilean Pisco in Peru is simply called aguardiente (firewater) and visa versa.

Considerable differences also exist in the way in which Pisco is made in each country. While both distil the spirit from grapes, it’s about there that the similarity ends.

Peruvian producers are allowed to distil fermented wine or wine that is still fermenting (must). Pisco can be made from eight varietals, though as much as 80 percent of the products on the market there use solely or include the variety quebranta. Pisco must not only be single distilled, it must also be distilled to the final alcohol content, which means water can’t be added after distillation. Wood aging is not allowed and the spirit must be rested for a minimum of three months in a nonreactive container – copper, stainless steel or glass or, traditionally, in the clay pitchers known as botijas, or colloquially as piscos. Generally speaking this aging process means the end result is clear in colour and the Pisco can range from dry to quite sweet (when distilled from must).

In Chile the rules of production are, some would say, more modern. The number of grape varieties used is fewer – just pedro ximenez, torontel, and various types of moscatel. In Chile Pisco must be distilled from completely fermented wine. A batch can be distilled as many times as needed to produce a cleaner, more pure Pisco. Water is added to reduce the alcohol level over a period of around eight months to ensure complete integration. Chilean Pisco may be aged in oak. This will often be used Bourbon barrels from the United States, though some pisqueras use French oak barrels. The end result can appear amber in color, with spicier flavours.

One of the Chilean pisqueras I visited back in 2014 and whose product we are now already enjoying in New Zealand, was Pisco Waqar. While many others in the Tulahuén region have stopped using moscatel grapes, at this five-generation family business the variety is still their main raw material. This and hand-harvesting from old vineyards gives their Pisco a characteristically intense aroma. They combine state-of-the-art technology with small-batch processing and copper pot distillation to create a hand-made Pisco that is natural and aromatic.

We were lucky enough to be treated last month to a series of master classes in Auckland and Wellington by Pisco Waqar’s Juan Carlos Ortuzar Gana. The gusto with which our local industry pros took to the challenge augers well for the future of Pisco down under.

Waqar is one of six Piscos Planet Wine currently imports from Chile, the others being Mistral Especial and Gran Nobel, Control, Tres Erres Moai (in its distinctive Easter island bottle) and Horcon Quemado. But in the interests of international neutrality, and in a drive to become known as ‘Planet Pisco’, we’re presently also investigating opportunities in Peru and aim to have their national drink hitting these shores in the second part of 2017.

When I was finding it difficult to arrange a suitable day to visit a prospective Ribera del Duero wine supplier last year, little did I know that the eventual invitation to a special ‘event’ was in fact a great honour – I was going to participate in Hermanos Pérez Pascuas’ 35th anniversary celebrations in the village of Pedrosa.

The family bodega – highly respected as a pioneer in a Spanish wine-producing area that’s reputation has been built on the great quality of its tempranillo-based wines – was started in 1980 by brothers Benjamín, Manuel and Adolfo Pérez Pascuas. The trio inherited the property from their father, Mauro Pérez, who was born among the vines of Pedrosa de Duero, and who planted and tilled his vineyards with considerable wisdom and passion.

Despite my newcomer status and my limited smattering of Español, I was fortunate enough to be seated at a table with one of the founding brothers and his wife. My friend Teresa found herself alongside an elegant woman (who claimed she and I had met in a previous life!) who runs a high-end wine club in Mexico City with her husband. They were just two of a number of foreign agents who had flown in specially for the event from as far afield as Holland, Japan and Belgium. To me, that spoke volumes about the family, the company and the culture that exists there, and I knew then I’d like doing business with them.

We were given a tour of the impressive facility before the dinner, and after continuing the party well into the night at the nearby hamlet of Roa, I returned the next morning for a meeting and tasting with oenologist and technical director, José Manuel Pérez Ovejas, son of Benjamín.

It was José Manuel’s return to the family fold in 1989 that was a turning point for the business. As an agronomist with a bachelor’s degree in oenology and masters in viticulture, he brought a wealth of international knowledge to assist his father’s and uncles’ aim to make one of the best wines in Spain. (An ambition they are well on the way to achieving, already exporting to over 38 countries, and as of this month, New Zealand.)

But rather than breaking with the past and tradition, José Manuel returned with a very clear objective: to be a practical and non-interventionist winemaker, reconciling the knowledge he’d acquired in his studies and travels with the wisdom and experience of his elders.

And that approach has paid off. Today, with 27 harvests behind him and numerous visits to some of the best vineyards in the world – Burgundy, Tuscany, the Napa Valley – José Manuel believes the wines of Viña Pedrosa can rightfully rub shoulders with the best of from around the world.

The winery sits atop a hill just outside the village of Pedrosa de Duero at 800m above sea level, with panoramic views over the 135 hectares of vineyards and the family’s luxuriant pine forest. Its elevated position results in a cooler micro-climate, which makes for a lengthier growing season and slow ripening, with harvest often completed weeks after the surrounding lower-lying vineyards. The conditions are well suited to tempranillo, which makes up 90% of the vines, with the other 10% given over to cabernet sauvignon.

Bodega Hermanos Pérez Pascuas produces a number of premium wines entirely from the estate’s own grapes – Cepa Gavilán, Finca la Navilla, Viña Pedrosa (crianza, reserva and gran reserva) and its supreme offering, Perez Pascuas Gran Selección. Made in homage to the property’s founder, grapes for this exclusive wine are picked from 80-year-old tempranillo plants in Mauro’s beloved Valtarreña plot and aged for 26 months in oak. Production is kept to 5,000 bottles and only in the best vintages.

All the Viña Pedrosa wines are judiciously matured in French oak casks to produce serious, multi-layered wines that are subtle, elegant yet concentrated, opulent, well-structured and full of nuances. No surprise then, that they’ve all been highly rated by national and international press, and that the Gran Selección 2011 has recently received a perfect 100/100 in the Guía Vivir el Vino 2017 and named the Best Red Wine in Spain. “It is pure elegance from the beginning to the end. A never-ending finish. A real masterpiece,” said Raul Serrano, wine tasting director for the guide.

That quality comes with a certain price tag and the three-litre double magnum of Viña Pedrosa Gran Reserva we’ve just brought in carries one of our highest yet, at $650. But we know it’s got someone’s name on it.

]]>false2016-12-18T01:08:32Z2016-12-18T01:08:32Zhttps://www.planetwine.co.nz/planet-wine-blog/dan-gillett-of-scotch-wine-bar-wine-shop/You could describe Dan Gillet as a brave man. Firstly, to run a wine bar in the competitive heart of our premier winemaking region. And secondly, to lead the charge in New Zealand when it comes to the sometimes polarising natural wine movement. But he’s made considerable success of both his Blenheim Scotch Wine Bar & Wine Shop, and as the country’s first commercial importer of natural wines through his business Wine Diamonds NZ.

Dan answered a few questions for us about both businesses:

You are rapidly building a reputation in the restaurant/bar scene in Marlborough, but how did you first get involved in the industry, and what was the journey that brought you to own a wine bar and shop?

Three years ago I was co-owner of a café and coffee roastery just down the road from the wine bar. We were expanding into the nights and my sister Lauren, who is a winemaker, helped me out with our first wine list. I guess it all started then.

Tell us a little bit about Scotch Wine Bar & Wine Shop, what makes it different to other local offerings?

Product and service ... On the food front, we write a weekly menu that focuses on small plates that can be shared around the table, so lots of dishes brought out one by one. On the wine front, a wine list with depth and balance, with a weekly by-the-glass list. On the service front, all this is done in a fun, easy-going and approachable manner.

You are positioned in the heart of New Zealand’s largest wine producing region. That can be both beneficial, and also possibly slightly intimidating. How has the local winemaking community responded to your business?

Just over two years ago when I took on Scotch most of our customers drank craft beer and the change in ownership seemed like a hurdle that would take forever to overcome. It’s always intimidating writing a list for people with so much more experience and knowledge than yourself, but that’s the challenge. Now, we sell more wine than anything and I reckon 3/4 of our customers work in the wine industry too.

Through your import business Wine Diamonds, you’re recognised as a forerunner in the fledgling natural wine movement in this country. Tell us about your philosophy on natural wines, and why they play an important role in your import and retail business.

Separate to Scotch I run Wine Diamonds, a natural wine import and distribution business. In a simple sense we only deal in organically farmed wines that aren’t added to or taken from. My love for natural wines comes from all the qualities in them that you won’t find in anything else. Getting to introduce a lot of these wines to New Zealand has played a massive part in the success of Scotch too.

You have over 300 wines on the Scotch wine list, all available from your shop. What constitutes a good wine list to you?

A good list should have depth and balance, and while I try to have ‘staples’ from every corner of the world, be it Burgundy, Loire, Marlborough, what I really look for are unique wines that have character and something different about them.

What questions do you ask a customer who isn’t quite sure what they are after, to help direct their choice?

I tend to start with talking about what they like to drink, then work from there. I’m always thinking about what they are eating, etc, but try my best to avoid talking to the customer about that – I reckon 99% of the public find food and wine pairings a little antiquated and intimidating.

What would you suggest to a customer who comes in to the wine shop looking for a knockout wine to impress their dinner guests?

We’re lucky because when you have 3-400 different wines on offer, you can generally offer a knockout wine in every category. So if it’s Champagne, I’d be suggesting Egly-Ouriet, Prévost, etc. Burgundy, we have Rousseau, Vogüé, etc ... It gets a little easier when you have more wine on offer.

Which are currently the most popular wines you are currently selling?

We always do best with the wines that we like to drink ourselves. They’re honest suggestions rather than up-sells. At the moment it’s the Viura/Malvasia from López de Heredia / Viña Tondonia. It’s a 2002 Rioja Blanco that’s made in a beautiful, rich, oxidative style. We all love it.

Scotch also offers a frequently updated menu featuring seasonal and local food. Can you match two wines from Planet Wine to two dishes on your menu?

I really like the sherries from Delgado Zuleta, so a Manzanilla with something savoury or briny such as olives or anchovies is a great way to start a meal.

The wine I mentioned before, the López de Heredia / Viña Tondonia Rioja Blanco, with Pork Belly. The almost sherry-like component in the wine works really well with the richness and fat with pork belly too.

How did your relationship with Martin and Planet Wine begin?

I was first introduced to Martin and Planet Wine through a friend, Melissa, who runs Ponsonby Road Bistro. We were talking about the wines (and tonic water!) from Adi Badenhorst in the Swartland.

What is it that you appreciate about Planet Wine as a supplier?

Martin’s list is endless. He has wine from just about everywhere, and when you try to write a list that has a similar philosophy, working with people like Martin seems only natural. He’s also a bloody nice guy.

Which wines/regions are currently under-represented in NZ (and could be an opportunity for Planet Wine)?

America. I’d love to see some more wine from the likes of Russian River Valley, Oregon, etc. and if there’s anyone likely to find it, it’d be Martin.

]]>false2016-09-22T10:08:59Z2016-09-22T10:08:59Zhttps://www.planetwine.co.nz/planet-wine-blog/kiwi-angela-osborne-crafts-rulebreaking-grenache-in-california/Many of us in the wine world have been unaware that an Aucklander is making a significant impact on the US winemaking scene from a remote vineyard in the Santa Barbara Highlands of California.

Angela Osborne was named by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of ten winemakers to watch in 2015, representing ‘the daring, questioning spirit that exemplifies the best of our current wine culture’. Wine Enthusiast picked her amongst their Top 40 under 40 Tastemakers in the same year, and the very latest issue of the esteemed Food & Wine magazine places her at the top of their list of iconoclasts ‘crafting rule-breaking wines’ across the globe.

To others, Angela is quite simply recognised as the grenache guru. And, thanks to an introduction from our good friends at Ponsonby Road Bistro, very soon a selection of her ‘A Tribute to Grace’ single vineyard wines that have earned a cult following in the US, will be available in New Zealand as part of the Planet Wine portfolio. We can’t wait.

So, how did a Shore-raised film school graduate end up making wine under her own label high in the Sierra Madre mountains? Well, it was during her Auckland Uni days that Angela’s real interest in wine began, working shifts between lectures at Point Wines in Northcote Point, and a couple of evenings a week at Caro’s. “I think I got the job at Point Wines because I could pronounce gewürztraminer properly, having spent a gap year as an exchange student in Germany!”

A management role at the store followed when she finished film school, but the desire to chase her documentary-making dream beckoned and she soon started volunteering on film sets. It was just before leaving Point Wines that fate intervened with a visit from legendary winemaker Brent Marris, who recognised Angela’s passion for wine and didn’t want to see her lost to the industry. He suggested she try a harvest overseas and put her in touch with a friend, fellow Kiwi winemaker Nick Goldschmidt, in Sonoma County.

The choice came down to a job as a runner on a new TV police drama, or a season at Simi Winery. Wine won out, and in 2002 she spent three months in the massive facility scrubbing, filling, emptying and fixing holes in barrels as a member of a solely female Hispanic cellar crew. “I couldn’t speak a lick of Spanish, but I loved every minute of it! I knew then that is was what I wanted to do, to make wine.”

It was during her next internship at a boutique family-owned winery, also facilitated by Nick, that the allure of grenache first took its hold on her, and she knew then it was not just wine, but more specifically grenache she wanted to make.

Angela recognised though, that to make wine, first she needed to know more about how to sell it, and a stint at a wine shop in San Diego (which was also closer to her American dad) followed, then a move to London to take on the wholesale wine world. That’s where the Ponsonby Road Bistro connection was made, with head chef Sarah Conway who at the time owned a little restaurant in Islington called Fig.

Working as a wine rep Monday to Friday, Angela helped out at Fig on Saturday mornings. “I called myself her sous chef, which was funny as the kitchen consisted of the chef, the dishwasher and me. I mostly grated apples for Bircher muesli and asked Sarah to hand me a chai with an espresso shot across the pass. She named it Hippy with a Sling Shot. We had lots of fun.”

After two and a half years in London, the movie Sideways literally lured her back to the big skies of California in 2006, and to WineSellar & Brasserie in San Diego. Soon after her return, the store held a grenache tasting for Thanksgiving, and all the winemakers happened to be from the Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard. “It was like the stars aligned!”

One of them offered Angela the chance to piggyback on his grape contract at the sustainably-managed vineyard (North America’s second highest for grenache, at an elevation of 1000m) and to make her wine in his winery. And so in 2007 A Tribute to Grace was born, with a single 100% grenache wine made from her first harvest.

“Grenache can be as ethereal as it is powerful, and, when made with balance, delivers the sort of expression that makes the world slow down. My aim is to meet that goal with every vintage, like the very first grenache I tried allowed for me. It’s the perfect balance between yin and yang, but erring ever so slightly on the feminine, the yin.”

A Tribute to Grace’s portfolio has since expanded to several grenaches, plus a little rosé in some vintages, now also sourced from a handful of other vineyards in the region, and Angela is about to pick her tenth harvest at the beautiful desert scape of Santa Barbara.

Her and English husband Jason’s family has also grown to include two sons, Bodhi (3) and Marlin (1), and their Mexican coyote Archie, who all live on a 600 acre ranch in northern Santa Barbara County near the small town of Los Alamos. “From our house we only see rolling hills and birds of prey and the occasional bob cat. It’s very, very peaceful.”

The talk of yin and yang comes naturally to Angela, as does her approach to winemaking. As Wine Enthusiast puts it: “While some pay lip service to natural winemaking, Osborne … embodies it. She foot-treads grapes to the sounds of yogic chanting and racks according to the cycles of the moon.”

Angela acknowledges that, to some, that places her in the ‘earth mother, yogi, shanti-shanti camp’, but it’s really critical to her that in order to let the true graceful expression of the grape speak, you have to be very delicate and mindful with every part of making it.

The ‘Grace’ in the label’s name (Angela admits that the term features nine times on each bottle, including the cork) is not only about elegance. In fact the true inspiration behind the name was Angela’s grandmother, Grace. “She defined the attribute every day of her 91 years. Grenache is to me the most graceful of all grapes, so very much like Nana. And all the things I love most …”

Given the relatively small volumes of production, an exclusive mailing list of supporters get the first chance at each vintage of A Tribute to Grace, but the wines have also found their way onto influential wine lists from New York’s Eleven Madison Park to Stockholm’s Ekstedt.

In New Zealand we’ll be making Angela’s wines available to customers direct from the Planet Wine website, and sharing them with a small handful of restaurants and retailers.

For those who are already A Tribute to Grace fans, you’ll be happy to learn that it’s very much part of Angela’s and Jason’s plan (or at least their dream at this stage) to acquire a vineyard back in New Zealand. “We talk about it every day. We have our hearts set on the Tuki Tuki valley in Hawke’s Bay, and recently found a property that looks so very perfect. We’re hoping to get down there as soon as harvest is finished and see it for ourselves. For now, we look at it every day online.”

“The dream is to plant a few acres to chenin and, hopefully, grenache, and to split our time between New Zealand and the US. The home property would combine viticulture and a healing retreat, and our Cali life would stay dedicated to Grenache. A big dream! My Mum taught me to do that very well.”

In the meantime, if you'd like to put your name down for some of the three Graces we’re importing initially, email Martin on m@planetwine.co.nz. But hurry, allocations are tight and we’ll be delivering on a first come first serve basis when our consignment arrives in October.